Customers of ServiceNow, a cloud-based platform used to handle IT companies and processes, may very well be unknowingly exposing confidential data, together with names, cellphone numbers, inside system particulars, and energetic credentials.
Misconfiguration of Information Bases — self-service platforms inside ServiceNow the place customers can create, retailer, and share data equivalent to articles and guides — might result in unauthorised people getting access to the system. Many organisations use Information Bases as repositories of delicate inside data, equivalent to tips on how to reset firm passwords, how to answer a cyberattack, knowledge associated to HR processes, and extra.
Based on a new weblog from SaaS safety platform supplier AppOmni, round 60% of exposures contain older variations of Information Bases which might be set as much as permit public entry by default. Others have “Consumer Standards” — guidelines that outline particular situations for customers to entry or contribute to Information Bases — which might be unintentionally granting entry to unauthenticated customers.
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ServiceNow is utilized by 85% of Fortune 500, and over a thousand situations are at the moment arrange incorrectly. Many organisations with a number of ServiceNow situations had been discovered to have persistently misconfigured Information Base entry controls, indicating that the settings had been both cloned throughout situations or a elementary misunderstanding of how they work exists.
Aaron Costello, chief of SaaS safety analysis at AppOmni, stated, “This highlights the pressing want for enterprises to routinely test and replace their safety configurations to stop unauthorised entry and shield their knowledge property.
“Understanding these points and tips on how to mitigate them is important for sustaining sturdy safety in enterprise SaaS environments.”
This isn’t the primary time ServiceNow has been discovered to have been exposing delicate knowledge as a consequence of consumer misconfigurations. In 2020, one other researcher reported an identical discovering the place Information Base articles had been publicly accessible by a now-secure UI web page.
Ben De Bont, chief data safety officer at ServiceNow, stated, “ServiceNow is dedicated to fostering collaboration with the safety group. We’re dedicated to defending our clients’ knowledge, and safety researchers are essential companions in our ongoing efforts to enhance the safety of our merchandise.”
What are the Information Base misconfigurations?
AppOmni found three circumstances whereby companies had been placing their ServiceNow Information Bases susceptible to compromise:
- If utilizing an older model of ServiceNow the place the default settings for Information Base permit public entry when Consumer Standards aren’t arrange.
- If the “Any Consumer” and “Any consumer for kb” Consumer Standards are used as allowlists. Each of those grant entry to unauthenticated customers, which directors might not realise.
- If directors don’t configure denylists, permitting exterior customers to bypass entry controls.
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How attackers can achieve entry to the Information Bases
Based on Costello’s proof of idea, attackers can achieve entry to misconfigured Information Bases by Public Widgets, such because the “KB Article Web page” widget, which shows content material from a selected Information Base article.
An attacker can automate requests to seek out and entry articles by the widget utilizing a software referred to as Burp Suite. That is simpler with the KB Article Web page widget, which makes use of a predictable format for article IDs of “KBXXXXXXX,” the place X represents a optimistic integer.
Burp Suite’s Intruder characteristic can rapidly iterate over these integers and establish articles that could be uncovered unintentionally. It could actually then return the physique textual content, which can comprise the delicate knowledge of a number of unsecured articles directly.
Easy methods to safe Information Bases in opposition to unauthorised entry
Run common diagnostics on Information Base entry controls
ServiceNow’s Consumer Standards diagnostics software permits directors to find out which customers, each authenticated and unauthenticated, have the flexibility to entry Information Bases and particular person articles.
Navigate to /get_public_knowledge_bases.do to establish public Information Bases, and the complete diagnostics software at /km_diagnostics.do to establish the entry degree of public and private customers to particular person articles.
Use Enterprise Guidelines to disclaim unauthenticated entry to Information Bases by default
Make sure the “sys_id 6c8ec5147711111016f35c207b5a9969” Enterprise Rule — which provides the Visitor Consumer to the “Can’t Learn and Can’t Contribute” Consumer Standards — is activated for Information Bases.
